Having issues with game crashes, crashes in desktop, and artifacts since upgrading GPU from a 650Ti to a 1660 Super Mini ITX OC. I've gone through a lot of steps so far to resolve so have tried to add some clarity to it all below.
TL;DR: Went from 650Ti to 1660 Super Mini ITX OC, and with brand new Corsair TX650M I am getting green/purple/blue pixels on the screen and an old game needing on 512MB GPU constantly crashes. Multiple attempts to resolve issues and nothing is working.
New GPU Installation Steps
I have an old PC I can hook up to play the old game if it's likely just incompatible drivers with the new GPU - but another person who plays this game runs it without problems on a 2070 Super, so this suggests it can't be a driver/GPU problem.
I could probably live without playing this old game on this PC since I have the old PC, but it's now the green/purple/blue pixels on startup that won't go away unless I plug in / out the monitor cables after EVERY boot up that I need to sort out.
TL;DR: Went from 650Ti to 1660 Super Mini ITX OC, and with brand new Corsair TX650M I am getting green/purple/blue pixels on the screen and an old game needing on 512MB GPU constantly crashes. Multiple attempts to resolve issues and nothing is working.
New GPU Installation Steps
- Going from NVIDIA to NVIDIA, I didn't use DDU. I know there is debate about this.
- Unplugged PC and let it sit for 20 mins. Pressed power button to ensure no residual power in system.
- Unplugged 650Ti.
- Plugged in 1660 Super Mini ITX OC.
- PSU needed a 6-pin to 8-pin adapter so used an adapter.
- Powered on PC.
- Opened NVIDIA control panel and there was an update for drivers so updated.
- Dell XPS8700 (bought 2013)
- Windows 10 (64-bit OS) - fully updated.
- Intel Core i7-4770 CPU @3.40GHz
- 12GB RAM DDR3
- Dell 0KWVT8 Motherboard (BIOS fully up-to-date)
- 2 TB HDD
- 1 TB SSD
- 32GB mSATA SSD
- Initial PSU: Dell D460 AM-02 PSU - 460W
- Newly installed PSU: Corsair TX650M - 650W
- Dual monitors. Both 1920x1080, 60Hz.
- PC booted up no problem. No artifacts. All seemed 100%.
- Decided to play an old game I play online - Team Fortress Classic (TFC). I have played this game on this PC for seven years (many many hours) with the 650Ti installed with zero issues.
- TFC was released in 1999. Recommended PC requirements: 800 mhz processor, 128mb ram, 32mb+ video card, Windows XP.
- Playing ~2 minutes and TFC freezes. What was on the screen stays on the screen for approx. 5 seconds. Then screen goes black (not blue) and stays black for approx. 5 seconds. PC reboots itself.
- Sometimes when it reboots the login screen gets purple pixels (e.g. image of login screen) but not always.
- I tried GPU intensive games (DOOM 2016 and Wolfenstein II) and no issues at absolute MAXED graphics settings. So I can play modern games at full graphics with no issues.
- I had two crashes when browsing the internet also (never had crashes like these prior to installing the new GPU). When these occurred I was browsing internet, dragged a browser window from one screen to the other, then the screens froze for at max 3 seconds, then the screens went black (not blue), then the PC rebooted after about 5 seconds.
- Got some advice that my PSU was likely under powered. Bought and installed a Corsair TX650M but the problems persist as below.
- Installed new PSU and played TFC (old game). Played for ~20 minutes and crashed as detailed above (previously would crash after ~2 minutes, so some improvement).
- Decided that perhaps because I didn't do a fresh driver install that was the issue. So used DDU and re-installed fresh NVIDIA drivers.
- TFC game continued to crash and in fact went 'backwards' after fresh install of drivers, in that it went back to crashing after ~2 minutes of game play.
- Additionally, since installing the fresh drivers I now get green/purple/sometimes blue pixels on the screen from just a standard boot-up. See this image for an example.
- There is also weird behaviour with these pixels. I have dual monitors. So say A display port on GPU goes to A DVI on monitor (A to A) and B display port on GPU goes to B DVI on monitor (B to B). The green pixels were appearing on A monitor but when dragging a window to B monitor the pixels were gone, drag back to A and pixels are there again. So they were only on monitor A. I switched the cables around at the monitor end only - so A display port now going to B monitor (A to B), and B display port goes to A monitor (B to A). So if it is an issue with the A display port (or the cables) it should now be showing on B monitor, but it doesn't. The pixels continue to show on A monitor. Which suggests the monitor is faulty. But this was not (and NEVER) happening before using DDU and reinstalling the drivers and also never happened using the 650Ti. When I put the 650Ti back in there are never any of these pixels.
- I have also noticed my CPU fan now randomly spikes. I have sat watching the CPU temps on CoreTemp and the spikes do not correspond with temp increases or increases in CPU usage. The fan spikes when there is no temp or CPU usage increase/decrease. Seems completely random.
- Also after DDU and fresh install, when attempting to play Wolfenstein II, I get an error message saying my GPU has run out of VRAM and I need to now reduce my settings. I messed with NVIDIA CP settings and found that when specifying the GPU as the 1660 for Wolfenstein II under "OpenGL rendering GPU" instead of leaving it set at "Auto Select" it became playable again on may settings. I only have the 1660 installed - no other GPU - and the CPU integrated graphics are not accessible when the PCI GPU is installed (at least that is my reading and there is no option to use the integrated graphics in any windows setting/device manager etc.).
- Since new PSU I have had one crash while I had browsers open but it happened while the PC was idle as I stepped away for about an hour. The windows event log said it restarted to perform a "bugcheck".
- Verified TFC game files on Steam.
- Tried TFC compatibility setting for ALL previous version of Windows.
- Tried running TFC as administrator.
- Ran sfc /scannow: Corruption found and replaced/repaired. Crashes still occur after repair.
- Ran DISM.
- Using OLD 460W PSU: Kombustor stress test: 30 minutes, 100% GPU load, no crashes. GPU maintained 60 degrees C throughout.
- Using OLD 460W PSU: Kombustor benchmark (1920x1080, MSI-01) = 1960. Which seems around the same as other benchmarks listed on the Kombustor score index website.
- Using OLD 460W PSU: CPU temps: During stress test CPU temps on CoreTemp were in the high 50 degrees C.
- Using OLD 460W PSU: CPU temps: During Kombustor benchmark the highest CPU temps were 55-57 degrees C.
- No memory errors using Memtest86 (4 passes).
- Case is clean - looks reasonably close to brand new inside. Don't believe dust is an issue.
- Ran DELL boot up diagnostics - all clear.
- Reinstalled drivers three times. All this did was create the pixel problem.
- Windows is fully up-to-date.
- BIOS is fully up-to-date.
- Purchased new PSU (went from 460W to 650W).
- Windows Event View keeps just showing the below around the time of the crashes. I have read that no dump file being created can be the result of clean-up software (e.g CCleaner) but I have no such software installed:
- Error - volmgr - 161 - None
- Dump file creation failed due to error during dump creation.
- Critical - Kernel Power - 41 - (63)
- The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly.
- Error - EventLog - 6008 - None
- The previous system shutdown at 15:02:37 on 31/10/2020 was unexpected.
- Error - EventLog - 1101 - Event Processing
- Audit events have been dropped by the transport. 0
- Error - volmgr - 161 - None
I have an old PC I can hook up to play the old game if it's likely just incompatible drivers with the new GPU - but another person who plays this game runs it without problems on a 2070 Super, so this suggests it can't be a driver/GPU problem.
I could probably live without playing this old game on this PC since I have the old PC, but it's now the green/purple/blue pixels on startup that won't go away unless I plug in / out the monitor cables after EVERY boot up that I need to sort out.
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